Although tired after a full day of useless discussions and endless negotiations, I was feeling a better mood started to develop as soon as I went out of the conference.

And since the end of January means the last sales….the answer on “what to do” was simple….needless to say that for these activities Berlin offers a widest selection money can buy. The large shops, malls and grands magazins and around Tauentzienstrasse and Wittenberplatz were so many and so large, that an outsider finds himself lost within the first hour.

Endless displays of couture clothing, shoes and fashion accessories, sports, electronics, perfumes, home design, etc…..then restaurants and cafes….everybody was happily carrying at least a shopping bag, some were struggling with many many more.
Time passes quickly when 50-70% sales, so after a few hours in KaDeWe and a couple of hundred euros less, I was beginning to feel tired, hungry and annoyed.

During a short coffee break to stretch legs and watching the happy shoppers’ crowds, i remembered a recent BBC study, that although people today have the world at their feet because of cheap flights, have more money to spend and more time for holidays, they are not happier than 50 years ago, when they used to have less money and space for themselves, but they used to spend much more time with their large families or with their friends at the buffet around the corner.

Since then, we have been caught into the matrix: try to complement our solitude with objects and nowadays we’re selling our years for huge mortgages in the desire to make the space (and hence solitude) around us even larger.

Second time in Berlin (?!)

Another week on the road, this time on business trip to Berlin. Although this may be called my second visit here, I’m not sure whether the first one can be counted as such. It happened in March 1997, few hours between trains in early March 1997, which I spent around the Berlin Zoo area with little remembrance other than how I was trying to keep warm.

This time, as the conflicting interests would anticipate long and hard bearing conference days, I managed to substitute working days at home…. with flying days. On the other hand, this also meant that I had some time to splurge.
Immediately after hotel check in and with no idea in which part of Berlin I was, except for the fact that “you’re in the city centre”, I started to walk around with no precise purpose. Large boulevards bordered with steel and glass office buildings, glitzy restaurants and cafes, formally dressed people rushed in all directions. They were looking at me as if I were an obstacle to be avoided, rather than another human being. I guess I should’ve found it normal, since I live in Bucharest, a city whose inhabitants give you the same look in the streets.

From the business area around Ernst Reuter platz I arrived in the students’ area around T.U. Berlin, more relaxed and pleasant, and further on towards the Zoo and the Kaiser Wilhelm platz. I still cannot imagine why a colleague from work said the day before “Berlin is my favourite city, it doesn’t compare with anything you’ve seen until now”. Maybe it was me in a bad mood, for which nothing seemed particularly interesting, not even as per the standards of a western globalised city. And so I interpreted the cold rain which started to poor immediately after dusk as a heavens sign I should return to my cocoon. Hence, I voted for a smooth end of the day with a massage by the pool.

winter in park

sunset over a nice holiday

...in Colombo, a capital under siege

Elephant Orphanage at Pinnewalla

Kosgoda

Baby turtle hatchery in Kosgoda….it may be very touristy, but it’s still quite touchy




….and so little they were, but were desperately crawling to get to the immense sea in front of them, at sunset.

A whole turtle life’s waiting in front…or death….

It is believed turtles return the same place some day. Hope they’ll have something to return to…


Still thinking at the baby turtles and their faith